E-books

This is the third in a series of infrequent articles that feature technology reviews for the budget traveler

There are never enough hours in a day, is it? Between working a full-time job, running three Blogs, traveling whenever I can; there is rarely time to think, much less indulge in things that I desire, but can’t due to time constraints. Being busy is a good thing, however, when it keeps you from doing some of the simpler things in life, it becomes drudgery.

One of those simple things that I’d begun to miss was reading. As a writer, reading is fundamental. I couldn’t recall the last time that I had read anything with more pages than a magazine. As a traveler, it’s important to have an escape from the real world and there ‘s nothing better at accomplishing that than immersing yourself in a good read. So, I resolved to take a stand; to get back to the basics. I had to do something dramatic, something that would force me to follow through on my goal. My solution was the Amazon Kindle 3! I had been a fan of the Kindle since its first incarnation as a white, much larger and more expensive electronic reader.

Ta Da!! Here’s my Kindle in all of its glory!

I thought it was a cool invention spearheaded by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com. However, at the time, I couldn’t imagine having to pay $399.00 for the reader and still pay for the books on top of that! Well, patience truly is a virtue. With its recent version, Amazon has decided to offer more features at a cheaper price. The Kindle 3 is smaller (6”), sleeker (weighs less than 9 ozs) and your choice of either a lovely shade of charcoal gray or bright white. The Kindle 3G Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6 allows you to search the net wherever there is a Wi-Fi hotspot to be found and sells for 139.00. The Kindle 3 with Wi-Fi and global 3G coverage allows you to surf the net whenever the spirit hits you, no hotspots needed and it sells for 189.00. Each of those features (Wi-Fi and 3G) is free for the life of the reader.

When not in use, the Kindle goes to ‘sleep’ and a screen saver shows up on the display. You must slide the button on the bottom right to ‘wake’ it.

As luck would have it, it took a month to get mine as the sudden drop in price created a frenzy in the book-reading world. Alas, the wait was worth it. I am absolutely enamored with my Kindle!! As of this writing, I have almost 100 books stored on it. There are so many places to find free books online, that is probably where you should start. Amazon offers various genres that can be purchased through their one-click ordering system. It literally takes two seconds to buy a Kindle title on Amazon. And literally 60 seconds later, that title is transported wirelessly to your own personal Kindle. Be sure to do a search on free Kindle books in their Kindle store before you begin to pay hard cash for a book.

You can organize your books into collections. My collections are divided into author’s names mostly, but some are based on subject matter.